74. Working with XML using xml.etree

Here are 10 Python code snippets demonstrating how to work with XML documents using the xml.etree.ElementTree module for parsing and creating XML files.

1. Parsing an XML String

This example shows how to parse an XML string into an ElementTree object and print the tag names.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml_data = '''<root>
                    <child1>data1</child1>
                    <child2>data2</child2>
                </root>'''

# Parse XML string
root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

# Access and print tag names
for child in root:
    print(child.tag, child.text)

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2. Parsing an XML File

This example demonstrates how to parse an XML file using ElementTree.parse().

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# Parse XML file
tree = ET.parse('sample.xml')
root = tree.getroot()

# Access and print tags
for child in root:
    print(child.tag, child.text)

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3. Creating an XML Document

This example shows how to create an XML document using ElementTree.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# Create root element
root = ET.Element("root")

# Create child elements
child1 = ET.SubElement(root, "child1")
child1.text = "data1"
child2 = ET.SubElement(root, "child2")
child2.text = "data2"

# Generate XML string
tree = ET.ElementTree(root)
tree.write("output.xml")

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4. Finding Elements with XPath

This snippet demonstrates how to find elements using XPath expressions.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml_data = '''<root>
                    <child1>data1</child1>
                    <child2>data2</child2>
                    <child1>data3</child1>
                </root>'''

# Parse XML string
root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

# Find all elements with tag 'child1'
for child in root.findall('child1'):
    print(child.tag, child.text)

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5. Modifying XML Elements

This example demonstrates how to modify an XML element's attributes and text content.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml_data = '''<root>
                    <child1>data1</child1>
                    <child2>data2</child2>
                </root>'''

# Parse XML string
root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

# Modify the text of 'child1'
child1 = root.find('child1')
child1.text = "new_data1"

# Generate modified XML
tree = ET.ElementTree(root)
tree.write("modified_output.xml")

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6. Setting Element Attributes

This example demonstrates how to add and modify attributes in XML elements.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# Create root element
root = ET.Element("root")

# Create child element with an attribute
child = ET.SubElement(root, "child", name="child1")
child.text = "data"

# Print XML
tree = ET.ElementTree(root)
tree.write("output_with_attributes.xml")

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7. Iterating Over XML Elements with Attributes

Here we show how to iterate over XML elements and access their attributes.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml_data = '''<root>
                    <child name="child1">data1</child>
                    <child name="child2">data2</child>
                </root>'''

# Parse XML string
root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

# Iterate over children and access their attributes
for child in root:
    print(child.tag, child.attrib['name'], child.text)

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8. Converting XML Document to String

This example demonstrates how to convert an ElementTree object back to a string.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# Create root element
root = ET.Element("root")
child = ET.SubElement(root, "child")
child.text = "data"

# Convert to string
xml_str = ET.tostring(root, encoding='unicode')
print(xml_str)

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9. Pretty Printing an XML File

To make XML output more readable, you can use minidom for pretty printing.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
from xml.dom import minidom

# Create root element
root = ET.Element("root")
child = ET.SubElement(root, "child")
child.text = "data"

# Convert to string
xml_str = ET.tostring(root, encoding='utf-8')

# Pretty print XML
xml_str = minidom.parseString(xml_str).toprettyxml(indent="  ")
print(xml_str)

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10. Removing an Element from XML

This snippet demonstrates how to remove an element from an XML document.

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import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

xml_data = '''<root>
                    <child1>data1</child1>
                    <child2>data2</child2>
                </root>'''

# Parse XML string
root = ET.fromstring(xml_data)

# Find and remove 'child1' element
child1 = root.find('child1')
root.remove(child1)

# Print modified XML
tree = ET.ElementTree(root)
tree.write("output_without_child1.xml")

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These code snippets illustrate how to work with XML data using the xml.etree.ElementTree module. You can use this module to parse, modify, create, and write XML documents efficiently in Python.